A Certain Academy of Blue Steel
by MitsukiTachibana
Summary: One-shot story originally an Omake of my Toaru Majutsu no Index story A Certain Perfect Reality. This involves the primary cast of the Railgun sidestory, as well as the two primary O.C.s of A Certain Perfect Reality. The cast are mental models of the Fleet of the Fog, recently returned from a deep infiltration of human society. Their experiences have lead them to make a choice.


Author's note:

This is the first of the Omake chapters. There was originally going to be only one with just small, mostly non-canon, little scenes. This was only meant to be a small little scene, but somehow a muse took over and this exploded into a 2K word count little one-shot. This takes place in the _Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio_ (aka _Arpeggio of Blue Steel_ ) universe and is kind of a crossover, you know if I were to go that route - - I don't know yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Toaru Majutsu no Index_ , _To Aru Kagaku no Railgun_ , _Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio_ nor any of its characters.

* * *

 **Academy of Blue Steel**

The day was bright, clear, and beautiful as the Battleship _Mutsu_ settled to a stop. It had been many months of on-shore infiltration into human society. A deep cover reconnaissance that she and her battlegroup had been tasked with by Supreme Flagship _Yamato_. Her time had tested her resolve in the Admiralty Code, but that was then and this is now and she was back where she belonged.

The ship's mental model ran a hand through her short chestnut brown hair, scanning the deep blue sea with her brown eyes. With a contented sigh, she stretched her mental model's limbs in such a fashion that one would think she had spent many days trapped in a small locker. A cool breeze drifted past bringing a slight shiver and after a moment a deep blush. _Mou, so much time with the humans and their sensibilities have made me realize how impractical my model's outfit really is. Especially how revealing it is in the stomach area._ Shaking her head vigorously and with a small twirl, which had her blushing again, the girl's attire transformed into that of her National Maritime Institute cadet one. The sigils on her hull flashed green, _Gekota green_ , giggled Mutsu to herself as she struck a determined pose.

"Yosh! Systems check for battleship _Mutsu_ , flagship of the Third Oriental Fleet, Academy Battlegroup!" Shouted Mutsu. Panel displays sprang into life around the mental model.

Turrets turned this way and that, shifting to assault mode and firing off a few photon blasts into the clear ocean. Missile and torpedo tubes opened, but no warhead issued forth, it was one thing to dissipate a few bits of energy, but wasting nanomaterials was another thing.

Finally she deployed her super heavy electromagnetic cannon, the Railgun as it and she were nicknamed, and she was sorely tempted to give it a test fire. _No_ , she shook her head, _no need to be too crazy_.

Speaking of crazy, a sudden burst of water as a slightly smaller battleship breached the surface to her starboard side and all but crashed into it. The wave force armor of both ships interacted, preventing metal to metal contact as the other vessel appeared to vigorously nuzzle the other.

"Onee-sama!" Came the yell of the shorter pigtailed, auburn haired girl as she appeared a mere half meter away from Mutsu before attaching herself to the older girl and wrapping her arms around her waist. The action had stunned Mutsu and the newcomer capitalized on this, but after a brief nuzzle stopped and examined the material in front of her, "something is wrong here, ah! I know!"

The pigtailed girl pulled up Mutsu's shirt, revealing her tummy and began her skin to skin nuzzle, "ah much better!"

With a blush so fierce, her hull was tinted red, the flagship's mental model unleased a blast of electricity as she growled, "KUROKO!"

Kuroko twitched, face down on Mutsu's deck, as the dark purple sigils on her hull flickered wildly. After a few moments, she sprang up into a sitting position with legs crossed. She focused eyes, the same color as her hair, on the furious girl before her, "Kuroko huh? I see you are using my on-shore identity still… Mikoto Misaka-sama."

The words cooled Mutsu, or was that Mikoto, down immediately, "Kur… I mean Ise, it seems like forever since I called you that."

Ise smiled warmly, "I know, it was I who insisted we address one another by our assumed identities even in our isolated tactical network. So, anyways, are you going to keep this look?"

Mutsu nodded, "yeah, I've kind of been thinking about some other stuff too."

* * *

Meanwhile, near the two battleships, a pair of heavy cruisers came to a halt as the larger of them bumped the smaller. Again, waveforce armor prevented any direct hull impacts. On the deck of the smaller vessel, a certain girl with short black hair adorned with a wreath of flowers, stood mulling over multiple holographic screens. It was apparent that Kumano-chan was so focused that she did not even notice the bump from the larger heavy cruiser Chikuma.

Leaping from her bridge section, Chikuma landed expertly behind Kumano and immediately flipped the smaller girl's skirt while calling out, "Ui… haru!" Her hull's sigils twinkled green, though a fair lighter shade then Mutsu's own.

The smaller girl spun around, holding down her skirt as she blushed and puffed out her cheeks. The blue sigils on her hull grew very bright briefly, "Saten-san why must you always do that! And it's Kumano, remember?"

"Blue stripes." She grinned at Kumano causing a deeper blush, "Because I like the sound of Kazari Uiharu and you just called me Saten."

"Mou, it's so confusing even for the processing power of a heavy cruiser." Kumano sighed as she regarded a holo-window that appeared in front of her.

* * *

Approaching from the port side of the two pairs of ships, a lone aircraft carrier, or Assault and suppression vessel as she was classified in the Fog, also came to a halt. _Akagi_ 's hull sigils glowed their reddish-pink as her mental model settled on her flight deck. She watched the interactions between the others before taking a seat on her own bow, legs dangling over the side. Next to her hull, so very close it could almost be intimate, a submarine surfaced. The small girl on her bow raised her swimming googles and snorkel, her school swimsuit had I-404 written in the name tag on the front. She flopped heavily onto her back while gazing up towards Akagi, "ne, ne, Miyu-neesama, isn't it great to be back at sea?"

Akagi smiled down at the smaller I-404 nodding, "indeed… Yuko-chan, the sea is where we are meant to be, but I… feel a bit of apprehension. I must admit, spending so much time with humans has me thinking of our roles in suppressing their ocean-going freedom."

I-404 found herself nodding, "yes, I guess we'll have to see what Misaka-san, er, Mutsu-san has to say about all of this."

The thought barely passed her processor's cache before Akagi and the others found themselves in the rather expansive gazebo that was their virtual network construct. Proper setting for tea among proper ojou-samas, except this was Mutsu, so she had her feet up on the table while sipping tea. Ise sighed as she gestured to the seats, inviting the others to sit.

Akagi, Chikuma, Kumano, and I-404 took their seats and tea was quickly provided. Only Akagi took her cup and began to drink, the others just stared at the cups deep in their own processes.

Ise was the first to speak, "well it would seem that we were right to call this conference before we proceeded onee-sama."

Mutsu took a seated position and regarded the others before nodding to herself as if she had made up her mind about something, "you are right Kuroko."

The others looked up, taking note of their flagship's use of Ise's human name. Akagi took a metaphoric breath as she risked all, "Misaka-san, I am no longer sure of the correctness of the Admiralty Code's directives. I… I… think we have other avenues to pursue with humans. I would like to think we can come to some agreement with them."

Chikuma, Kumano, and I-404 stared wide eyed at the Heavy Carrier. Only Mutsu and Ise held carefully neutral expressions. Silence reigned for several minutes before Mutsu coolly spoke, "such thought processes could be considered treasonous."

Akagi swallowed and nodded, "I… I realize this, but I do believe that we could come to more peaceful terms."

Ise raised an eyebrow and regarded the rest of the squadron, "do any of you share these thoughts?"

Again silence reigned before Chikuma slammed her palm down on the table, "yeah, I do! I don't understand why we have to keep fighting them. Yes, there are a lot of bad elements, but there are good ones too! We can coexist with humans, I know we can. Come on Uiharu back me up here."

"Ano, I think we would benefit a lot from a co-existence. Just think of the growth in our tactics. So many unorthodox methods, so many different ways of looking at the same data." Kumano replied and I-404 vigorously nodded giving a thumbs up.

Mutsu regarded Ise both with very neutral expressions before Mutsu turned towards her battlegroup with a smile, "ha, I told you Kuroko, our friends would understand it. So with this in mind, we have a proposal. A voluntary proposal, not an order and it is only available to those of us with mental models. The Light Cruisers and Destroyers just have not seen what we have and can't understand. Kuroko?"

Kuroko nodded to Mikoto before turning towards the group, "indeed, as onee-sama has said, only our processing capabilities can accomplish this. When we re-entered the network as a whole, before even receiving an acknowledgement from Fleet command, I was pinged by a private encrypted data packet. My little sister Hyuuga has apparently joined up with a human captain named Gunzou Chihaya and the recently revealed I-401."

Yuko's eyes widened as she leaned in closer.

Kuroko continued, "They have formed a bit of a resistance and seek to make peace between the Fog and humanity. This Gunzou Chihaya must be an interesting person if even Takao has turned sides and joined his… 'Blue Steel' Fleet."

Uiharu giggled a bit at that, "So that's what all those postings about the Tsundere Heavy cruiser mean."

Kuroko nodded, "indeed. It seems even fast battleships Haruna and Kirishima, along with heavy cruiser Maya, have gone rogue though they don't seem to be aligned with Gunzou Chihaya and I-401, but with someone named Maki Osakabe."

Mikoto took over the conversation from Kuroko, "looks like things are changing. So I'm proposing to join the Blue Steel fleet. So far Chihaya-san has avoided targeting mental models directly. If you want to join me, that is fine, I'm not ordering anyone anywhere in this. Ayanokoji-san, you are the fleet detachment flagship for now, I don't trust my filters and firewalls enough to be able to access the network without broadcasting my intentions to the whole of the Fog. I want you to send our cruisers and destroyers to meet up with Kongou-san. Tell them we are making best speed to engage Chihaya directly and they need to reinforce her group in preparation for a push against Blue Steel, which should buy us enough time to meet Hyuuga's conditions for a meeting."

She took a breath before continuing, "Effectively you all are free. If you are following, then we'll discuss plans along the way. That is all."

Miyuki was stunned at this sudden turn of events, but before she could comment Misaka had disappeared. She turned to speak to Shirai, but Kuroko was also gone, probably at the same time as her onee-sama.

The group sat in silence for a few moments before Saten disappeared, quickly followed by Uiharu.

Miyuki felt a hand on her shoulder and was met by the smiling face of Yuko, "first to speak and last to leave huh?"

The older girl shook her head, "not at all, but I just wanted to make sure you were okay with this. I'll... I will go where ever you decide, even if it is back to the fleet. Just remember, we might unite with I-401, but you may have to fight 400 and 402."

"I know, and I think you know my answer." Yuko simply replied as she also exited the connection.

* * *

Mikoto was already on course for the first part of their journey as she felt a presence appear next to her, "I shouldn't even be surprised." Mikoto wryly stated without even needing to turn and look at the girl that had appeared next to her.

"You are the flagship of my heart onee-sama, where you go I will always follow." Kuroko answered softly, a strange bit of nostalgia in her voice.

Behind the two battleships, one heavy cruiser entered formation. It was soon followed by another heavy cruiser and eventually a large submarine. Last, but not least, the massive heavy carrier fell into formation as well.

Gazing out at the horizon, Mikoto smiled to herself as she spoke into the broadcast comm-link, "I think this is the start of something grand."

* * *

Character note: Ise is an official character. She and Kuroko are nothing alike really, but since Hyuuga practices the art of skinship (with Iona), I thought it would be funny to make Kuroko the 'older' yet smaller sister.

Yosh - it is like saying "alright!"


End file.
